


Strangers on a Train

by mldrgrl



Series: Adventures of The Lady Detective and The Writer [40]
Category: Californication, The Fall (TV 2013)
Genre: F/M, Fluff and Humor, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-22
Updated: 2017-11-22
Packaged: 2019-02-05 07:42:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,924
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12789936
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mldrgrl/pseuds/mldrgrl
Summary: Hanella returns and need to travel back to NYC after the wedding.





	Strangers on a Train

The Sunday evening train from Old Greenwich to Grand Central was light on passengers.  Though they weren’t alone, Stella counted four other people in their car when they boarded.  Hank shoved their suitcases up onto the overhead rack and then stretched out next to her with his feet on the backwards-facing seat in front of them.  After the conductor punched their tickets and moved to the rear of the car, Hank angled himself towards Stella and slid his hand under her dress to cup her knee.

 

“You ever fucked anyone on a train before?” he asked.

 

“No, I haven’t,” she answered.

 

“You wanna?”  His hand crept a little higher up to the inside of her thigh.  

 

“Not particularly.”

 

Hank grinned and rubbed her thigh with his thumb as he pressed his lips to the side of her neck.  He nuzzled her softly until they reached the next stop and then he pulled away.  

 

“I need to take a piss,” he said.

 

Stella nodded.

 

“Save my seat?” he asked, bending even as he stood and licked her bottom lip.

 

“Unless a better offer comes along.”

 

“Harsh.”  He bit her chin before walking away, and she watched the slow swagger in his hips and ass, licking her lips in appreciation.

 

Another woman would probably follow him, but she knew he wasn’t serious.  He’d told her that morning after they woke up that it was a good thing they were married now because he think he might have sprained something from all the fucking they did the night before.  She told him she could always forget to file the certificate and he begged her to have mercy.  They still ended up fucking, once in the bed and later in the shower, but with far less urgency, slow and unhurried.  They were both tired from the emotional toll of the weekend.

 

Only a few minutes after Stella closed her eyes, her brief tranquility was interrupted by a male voice.

 

“Excuse me, Miss, is this seat taken?”

 

“My husband,” she answered, before she even opened her eyes, and she startled herself by how easily and naturally it came to her to say.  She looked up and Hank was grinning at her.

 

“What an asshole,” he said.  “Leaving you here all alone.”

 

“Yes, but not for that.”

 

Hank smirked and then slid into the backwards facing seat across from her.  “How long you been married?” he asked.

 

“A day.”

 

“Congratulations.”

 

“And you?”

 

“How do you know I’m married?”

 

Stella lowered her eyes a bit to the wedding ring on his finger.  He followed her gaze and then twisted the ring with his thumb for a bit.

 

“Three months, more or less,” he said.

 

“Then I suppose congratulations are in order for you as well.  But, where is your wife?”

 

“She’s a spy.  Right now she’s on a covert operation in Europe.”

 

Stella raised her brow for a moment and then had to look away to hide her amusement.  The train slowed to a stop at another station and a family of four boarded their car.  The two young boys ran down their aisle as their mother called after them to slow down.

 

“My name is James, by the way,” Hank said, once the train was moving again.

 

“Claire,” she answered after a brief hesitation, the use of his middle name causing her to falter momentarily.  The rules of this game of theirs changed constantly.  What had started out as a way to seduce each other was now sometimes just a way to have a little fun.

 

“What do you do, Claire?  Wait, let me guess. Kindergarten teacher.”

 

“Do I really look like a kindergarten teacher to you?”

 

“No, I was teasing.  Lawyer?”

 

“Closer.”

 

“Judge?”

 

“I run an advertising agency.”

 

“Really?”  It was Hank’s turn to lift his brows in amusement.  

 

“What is it that you do?”

 

“I’m a chef at a five star restaurant.”

 

Stella had to run a knuckle under under her bottom lip to keep from laughing.  Hank grinned at her to acknowledge the ridiculousness of the personas they’d chosen.  She finally relaxed the smile from her face, but a hint of amusement remained.

 

“How do you like being married so far?” Hank asked.

 

“You’ve been at it for longer than I have,” she answered.  “You tell me.”

 

“Can’t complain.  Probably a matter of perspective though.”  

 

“How so?”

 

“I’m the kind of guy that likes belonging to someone.”

 

“Interesting.  Do you think your wife considers you as a possession?”

 

“Probably not.”  He paused and laughed.  “Doesn’t matter though because she owns my ass anyways.”

 

Stella took a few moments to look out the window and then back at Hank.  “Any complaints thus far?” she asked.

 

“My wife is a bit of the strong, silent type, and I’m a fixer.  I’d like her to talk to me more.  But, no, no complaints.  You?”

 

“Perhaps it’s a bit early in the marriage to say.”

 

“Oh, were you a mail order bride?  Just met yesterday?”

 

“Of course not.”

 

“You said it yourself when I sat down, Mr. Claire is a bit of an asshole.  Tell me why.”

 

“I didn’t really mean that.”

 

“Sure you did.  Spill it.”

 

“Sometimes I fear he’s unable to enjoy a bit of silence.”

 

Hank chuckled as he bit his bottom lip and shrugged his shoulders.  “Sounds like a rather polite way of saying you want him to shut the fuck up.”

 

“Not all of the time,” she said sweetly.  “Just most of the time.”

 

“I think you have a lot in common with my wife.”

 

There was a shriek at the rear of the train and Hank stretched his neck up a little as Stella glanced to the side.  One of the children that boarded earlier was throwing a tantrum and being hushed by the father.

 

“Kids,” Hank said.  “Little rays of sunshine when they’re not being complete shitheads.”

 

“I’ve a daughter,” Stella replied.  “Grown now.”

 

“Oh?  More sunshine or shithead?”

 

“She’s perfect.”

 

Hank closed his eyes momentarily and nodded.  He blinked at Stella when he opened them and then smiled.  “When you met your husband, did you ever imagine you’d end up where you are now?”

 

“Not in the least.”

 

“I did.”

 

“That can’t possibly be true.”

 

“No, I did.  I thought about it a lot this weekend, actually.  And, I mean, at first, on the surface, no I couldn’t imagine being in this place, but then I thought about it.  Like, really  _ really _ thought about it, and of course I’m here.”

 

“I’m going to require a more thorough explanation than the one you’ve just offered.”

 

“When I first saw my wife, I remember thinking to myself, that woman’s going to get me into trouble.”

 

“What kind of trouble?”

 

“Any kind of trouble, because we didn’t even have to speak to each other for me to know I’d do anything she asked of me without hesitation.  And you might say to yourself, well that just means I’m weak-willed, and you’d be right, but it was a far different sort of pull for me than I’d ever had before.”

 

“How so?”

 

“I was able to walk away.”

 

Stella simply raised her brows with an air of disbelief.  It was quite easy for him to spin the situation in hindsight, but they both knew he wasn’t more than a one night stand, and they were never supposed to meet again.

 

“Thing is,” Hank continued.  “I didn’t give her my number that night.  I made a conscious decision to leave it in the hands of the universe.  If I was supposed to see that woman again, it would happen.  I didn’t make it happen, I let it happen.”

 

“Interesting.”

 

“It’s never been  _ work  _ though, you know?”

 

“No, I don’t.”

 

“I mean there are no games.  I could’ve felt very used the night we met, although I allowed it to happen.  Or, I could’ve never thought about it again.  She made her intentions of me clear, which is not something most people do.  And I’m not saying she’s an open book, not by a long shot, but if I piss her off, she tells me.  f I’ve made her happy, she’ll tell me.  I don’t have to guess.  I don’t have to apologize for shit I’m not even sure I did wrong.  And the best part is, no one throws plates, or screams they hate my fucking guts, or threatens to toss me out on my ass.  It’s still messy and it isn’t perfect, but before my wife, I lived in a state of magical realism.  I was a living, breathing, walking hyperbole.  Everything that happened to me happened in operatic proportions.  She’s brought calm into the chaos.  And I knew, somehow I  _ knew _ , she could change my world.”

 

Stella was quiet for some time, listening to what Hank said with her gaze at his knees.  She finally lifted her eyes when it seemed as though he had no more to say.  “Those placed on pedestals can only fall,” she said.

 

“I don’t keep her on a pedestal.  She’s flawed as fucking hell, but it just doesn’t matter to me.”

 

“It sounds to me as though she’s lucky to have you.”

 

“I’d like to think so.  I’d like to think I offer her as much as she offers me.”

 

“I’m sure she wouldn’t have married you otherwise.”

 

“What do you think I offer, Claire?  Tell me.”

 

“I don’t even know you.”

 

“Tell me about your husband then.  What does he have to offer you?”

 

Stella felt a small twinge of anger rise up within her and she pressed her lips together.  He obviously didn’t listen when she said he talked too much, just as she clearly chose to ignore the bit about him wanting her to talk to him more.  Her nostrils flared slightly and she clenched her jaw.  Her temper ran mercurial, she knew, but he knew she didn’t like being pushed out of her comfort zone, which is perhaps why he chose this setting in this way.  She wasn’t Stella, she was Claire, chatting up a stranger on a train.

 

“Alright, James,” she said.  “I can’t speak as eloquently as you have, but I’ll tell you.  He’s never been afraid to try to know who I am and even with all he knows, he’s still there.  He does not give up or give in, where others have.”

 

“He must think you’re worth it.”

 

“I suppose I never felt that way until he made me feel worthy of the effort.”

 

“I lo...I love my wife very much.”

 

“I also love my husband more than I can adequately express.”

 

Hank pushed himself up and crawled into the empty space next to Stella.  He put his arm around her and she rested her head on his shoulder.  The steady rocking of the train lulled her and she closed her eyes.  The intermittent announcements of station stops seemed to fade from her consciousness as she relaxed into a light doze.

 

Stella woke when the train slowed for arrival into Grand Central.  The train car was subdued.  Even the children in back had fallen asleep and were now being reorganized into the arms of their parents.  Hank pulled the luggage down from the overhead racks and Stella took her suitcase to wait for the door to open.  Duffel bag slung over his shoulder, Hank joined her a moment later.  He leaned down and gave her a peck on the lips just as the doors slid open.  

 

Just before she stepped off onto the platform, Stella reached for Hank’s hand.

 

The End

  
  



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